Almost on the verge of extinction, Asiatic lions are rare to spot these days. A shocking video has emerged on the Internet which shows an Asiatic lion cub being wildly chased by a car until it ran into the wild woods. In the video, the faint voices can be heard as saying in Gujarati: "Hit it… Increase the speed. Shoot it. Won't get such a chance." Another man can be heard saying, "Can't hit."

Ram Kumar, the additional principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), told TOI, "We have sent the video to all senior officers and the DCF in Gir and have asked them to identify the area and the people." An analyst has been quoted in the same report as saying, "It appears that the car was moving at a speed of around 35-40 kmph and the cub was made to run at a greater speed." The officer said that the vehicle chased the cub for nearly 45 seconds. The 50-second video has been circulated to officials to identify the criminal.

According to a report by TOI, "Four men have been arrested now, who have been identified as, Utpal Pandya, Devang, Parthiv and Brijesh. Another person Lakhan Mer, who had facilitated their illegal lion show near Visavadar in Junagadh, was also identified. They were working as medical representatives in Bhavnagar."

"We began backward tracing of the origin of the video and rounded up one youth in Bhavnagar. The man broke down during interrogation and narrated the entire episode," the chief conservator of forest AP Singh told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Ramkumar, additional principal chief conservator of forest said, "There was no lead and hence with the help of cyber officials we traced the origin of the video. The department wants to set such examples so that desist from such harassment of lions and illegal shows."